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Row erupts in Jordan over school curricula changes

While few deny the need to reform Jordan's education system, the issue of combating extremism in the school curricula is dividing the kingdom.
A teacher distributes meals to students as part of a World Food Programme (WFP)-run project to provide healthy meals to students and to raise awareness of good eating habits, at Hofa Al-Mazar school  in the city of Irbid, Jordan, April 26, 2016. REUTERS/ Muhammad Hamed - RTX2BQMO
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A religious and political dispute continues to brew in Jordan over a controversial move by the Ministry of Education to revamp the curricula of the three elementary grades. According to Deputy Prime Minister Jawad Anani, the changes are part of the government's strategy to combat extremism in society.

Changes to school textbooks introduced this year involve coverage of Islam, history, Arabic and civics. For example, in civics, reference is made to acknowledge Christians as a demographic component of the population with pictures of churches as well as mosques. In religion, entire verses from the Quran and sayings by the Prophet Muhammad have been removed, while in Arabic literature, a picture of a veiled woman was replaced with one showing an unveiled woman. In Arabic-language textbooks for the third grade, a Quranic verse was replaced by a text on swimming. No changes were made to books on the sciences, mathematics and art.

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